Experiences

By: VivaciousWolf245 & TheBlackButler

Disclaimer: Don't own DGM!

Quick Author's Note: Yeah, it's Rhiannon! It's quick, I know, but, as Maddie said, I'm quick. I hope you like, and I will say that I DID change my username. I also have a few other stories up if you want to take a look at them. They're on this account, seeing as how I don't have another one, and I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

To say that I had been seriously pissed off when I'd awoken to find Maddie gone had been an understatement, but I brushed it off admirably as I threw on my Exorcist uniform. Just because we were the only two people from our dimension didn't mean that we had to be joined at the hip. Yeah, the familiarity was there, but it didn't have to be only there. With a slightly haughty huff, I opened the door out into the circular hallway, glaring at the Finder outside of the door so harshly, he shivered. I could make other friends…maybe. I never had been known very well for my social skills. I was always timid, quiet, and shy around people that I didn't know. I only talked to people if they approached me first. I was smart, scarily so, not to brag, with a partially eidetic memory. That labeled me a geeky nerd with the "popular" crowd, and so I only had my little rag-tag bad of misfits as friends. It was okay. It didn't matter. Over the years, they had become my surrogate family.

All the better for it, I assumed. My mother had psychological problems and my father traveled for work a lot. It wasn't that I wasn't close to them – far from it, my parents were practically my best friends. It was just that, because of it, I didn't get out much. I was okay with it. I was shy. I was a recluse.

I was an outcast.

I nearly laughed out loud as I joined the somewhat long breakfast line before Jerry's caged confines. I was starting to very nearly quote "Speak" and I needed to stop. Ordering a huge breakfast would cure any problems starting to form in my head, and possibly a good fight if I could find one. The good thing about being in an alternate dimension was that, hey, no parents! I could get into fights and not have to worry about the repercussions stressing them out! I kinda' liked the change, the fact that it was my favorite anime-verse notwithstanding. As I ordered my monstrosity of a breakfast, I figured that the only way to make any of this better was if there was a TV-verse that had a crossover of Criminal Minds and NCIS. I nearly drooled at the prospect, though it might have had something to do with the steaming stack of pancakes situated under my nose as I devoured it.

When I heard the tell-tale scoff from behind me and a mutter of "disgusting", I froze, and sent the iciest glare I could manage towards Kanda, "Beg pardon, sword boy?" Kanda narrowed his eyes as the hall became deathly silent. I noticed that Allen and Lavi had walked in and the latter looked as excited about a prospective fight as a kid in a proverbial candy store.

"You're weak," he said simply, and I let out a sarcastic, barking laugh.

"Et je vous déteste, mon ami," I replied as I brushed past him, patting him on the shoulder as I did so. The crowd "ooh-ed" like school kids and I, irritated, wondered just how old they really were.

At Kanda's incessant glare and no response, I laughed once more, "What? Oh! What's this? Never bothered to learn a language aside from English, did you? Oh, well, I wouldn't worry too much. French isn't all that hard to learn. Damn, though, you freaking live outside Paris. That's just kinda' sad."

Kanda growled, "I hate people like you, who think you know everything. You'll be dead the moment they send you out. You don't even have Innocence! I don't see why they bothered to give you a uniform!"

"I'm just that awesome, didn't you hear?" I sniped sarcastically, waving my hand nonchalantly. "Innocence, Shminnocence, I say. There are other ways to fight than to be right out there. Verbally, for instance! It works wonders, can't you tell?" I sang happily as I disposed of my trash.

"You're so annoying!" He retaliated weakly, and I couldn't help but notice how all of his comebacks fizzled in comparison to my own. He needed some serious coaching in good ole' fashioned sarcasm. "Nobody asked for your opinion. You're weak." I noticed, too, that he spoke a lot more than the Anime or Manga let on. Then again, it wasn't as if they actually knew him.

I shrugged as I brushed past him towards the door where Lavi and Allen were standing, "Oh well! You may not have asked my opinion, but you got it anyway! That's karma for ya', there, buddy!" I had to duck out the door as a plate was sent crashing my way. Lavi bid Allen good luck as he entered the room.

"Nuh-uh!" the bookman protested, nearly crawling behind me to try and protect himself. "I'm not going to go in there while Yu's that riled up! I've never seen him so mad that he talks that much! Good luck, Moyashi, but I'm not signing my death wish so soon!" Allen growled at the nickname, but I furrowed my eyebrows.

I paused for a moment, "Isn't it warrant and not wish?"

Lavi shrugged, "Probably. Hey, you're Rain, right?" I waved at Allen as he walked into the room, Lavi and I walking around the circular hallway.

I nodded, "Yeah. Have you seen Maddie, by any chance? She wasn't in the room this morning and her exploring by herself is…daunting, to say the least." I glanced up at him and wondered why the hell he sent so many people drooling. Yeah, he was standing in front of me, but to everyone in my dimension, he was an anime character. Fictional. I didn't get all the hype about wanting to be with someone who wasn't real. Personally, I didn't find anything special about him or Kanda or Allen or any of them. They were people. What was so special about them?

"I did," Lavi confirmed, grasping me out of my thoughts. "She was lost going to the library, so I showed her how to get there. She said that she wanted to do some research. Did you want me to show you the way there, too?" I scoffed and laughed as we turned a corner to go up a level. A walk would probably do me some bit of good.

"Are you kidding? She's doing something intellectual of her own free will. I walk in there and she'll make me do it before promptly running off! I'm sorry, no thank you! I've never had to study a day in my life, I'm not about to start because she's lazy. 'Sides, she needs some excitement. Maybe she'll find something about why the hell we went dimension-hopping in the first place. It's irking me. It shouldn't have happened by physics, yet it did. Then again, I suppose Innocence defies physics, wouldn't it?"

Lavi nodded and we began a whole conversation about the physics behind Innocence and existence, me following well and not really shocked to find him leading most of the conversation. I could be talkative when I wanted to be, but Lavi really beat me out of it. It didn't matter to me. I was content to just listen to his theories. They were rather interesting.

It was nearing around five o'clock in the afternoon when we found ourselves walking fairly close to the library, "…I mean, it could be that solar systems are atoms, but, there's the problem of proving it. You'd have to downscale, I guess." I nodded, shrugging at Lavi's deduction – it was one I'd made on my own many years ago.

"The only problem is that there aren't microscopes that can go down that far. I did read that they found small bits of matter circling some protons, like a moon, but that's just the thing – they can't get any closer to make out anything other than that it's a sphere and it's circling another sphere that's circling a nucleus. I say, give it another five hundred years or so," I finished with a laugh. Lavi looked as if he was going to say something back to me, but he was stopped short by a screech of my name from behind us down the hall.

"RAIN!" I winced at Maddie's voice, pegging her as seeking me out to do her research for her. I slowly slid my feet on the stone flooring so that I was facing her. She looked worn out, out of breath, and very frazzled. I furrowed my eyebrows in concern. It wasn't like her to let stuff just get to her.

I put a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off, pieces of her blond hair falling into her eyes, "It's bad. It's really, really, really bad. We're in trouble. Of course, I don't think it's true one bit, but, Central might not believe us. I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry, Rain. I wish it wasn't true!" I cocked my head to the side after shooting a sidelong glance at Lavi, only to find him in a complete bookman-observation state and I didn't have the heart to bring him out of it. He looked completely in his element, like me when I was profiling someone out of boredom.

"Maddie!" I shouted to stop her rambling and she looked up at me expectantly. "Calm down, now. Slowly, tell me what's wrong." She took a deep breath as if to steady her nerves before grabbing my forearm tightly in a nervous grip.

Her hazel eyes were serious and that in itself frightened me a little bit, though I was careful not to show it outwardly, "It'd be easier for me to show you. Come on!"

I motioned for Lavi to follow us as we took off into the library. To say I was shocked to see books and notes piled high on one of the tables was an understatement. I was half expecting to find Bookman behind the pile, hidden by the books. When I learned that it was Maddie's workstation, I about had a heart attack.

I nearly was gaping like a fish, "Damn. You've been…working…" I trailed off, becoming serious as I placed a hand on her shoulder, light grin playing on my face.

"We are so proud of you, Austria!" I sang, causing her to become slightly irritated. "This is a big step for you!" She pushed my hand off with a flurry of motion that I was sure wasn't necessary, sending a glance towards Lavi, and I nearly laughed. Oh, Kami, she liked him.

"Never mind that!" Maddie exclaimed, exasperated as she frowned. "You know, I should've figured you'd eventually meet up with him.

I shrugged, chortling softly, "What can I say? I'm a magnet for funny people." The red-headed bookman-in-training's eyes sparkled, causing me to internally groan. What the hell had I just caused?

Somehow, I was pretty sure that, while I didn't want to know, I was going to find out pretty quickly.

"You think I'm funny?" he cooed, happiness oozing sickly from every poor with the potency of liquid sunshine and rainbows and all of that other giddily happy stuff that I hated with a passion. Suddenly, I found myself in a bone-crushing glomp. It wasn't a hug. It far surpassed it. It was a glomp.

"YAY!" He shouted, no doubt earning nasty looks courtesy of the librarian who somewhat scared me more than the head nurse. "Rain thinks I'm funny! In your face, Yu!" I didn't have the heart to point out to him that Kanda wasn't even in the room, but I did have the nastiness to shove him off of me and unceremoniously onto the ground, eyebrow twitching the whole way.

"Get off me and STAY off of me, more importantly," I growled, sighing and crossing my arms before turning back to Maddie. "Anyway, mon amie, continue, please." Maddie grinned, yet I couldn't help noticing the slightly put-out look that crossed her face.

"Merci beaucoup," she responded. "Anyway, here, read this passage. It's…I don't think that it's true, but it fits the both of us." I quirked an eyebrow, but took the book from her and began to read aloud so Lavi could hear also.

The more I read, the more daunting it seemed and the harder it was to brush it off, "Inter-Dimensional Akuma: One of the Earl's best weapons, the inter-dimensional Akuma are rarely used, as they are hard to produce compared to a normal Akuma. Their strength matches that of a level 3; the weaker ones are level 2. The Millennium Earl uses the essence from the destroyed innocence he has collected and opens an inter-dimensional portal, opening him up to one universe at random. He then picks a/several human(s) and offers them the deal to bring a loved one back, then takes their bodies once they are dead. The Earl then erases any memories of previous encounters with Akuma, letting them believe they lead a normal human lifestyle. After enough innocence essence is once again collected by the Earl, he opens the portal to the same dimension and takes them into his.

"The inter-dimensional Akuma acts much like a time bomb. Most of the time, their personalities when in human form are extremes – raging, extremely timid, forever the optimistic, constantly depressed, etc. In society, they would be considered outcasts or the odd ones. They often like being the center of attention, and are genuinely human in terms of personality. In fact, this type of Akuma is not aware they are machines made by the Earl. They believe they are normal in every way. After a certain amount of time in the Earl's dimension, the Akuma begin to break down. They experience mood swings, and after more time, they transform into full-blown Akuma. It is the Earl's idea of a sneak attack on exorcists and the Black Order in general. There isn't a wide history of the inter-dimensional Akuma, but they are highly dangerous and need to be avoided at all costs."

I gaped down at the page.

"It fits us, Rain," Maddie said, worry seeping palpably into her voice and oozing threateningly into the air around her. I tried my best to ignore it. "We're misfits back home, you're timid around people you don't know and fiercely maternal around our little rag-tag group. You're constantly optimistic. I'm pretty depressed most of the time. Mood swings will start next, and –." I didn't let her finish as I slammed the book shut, my side bangs shielding my face from the two of them.

"Shut up!" I shouted, not realizing that I was slowly proving her right with my actions. "Maddie, it doesn't explain us! It could explain anybody. If between the two of us, it explains my mother better than it explains you or me. We aren't Akuma. We are completely human! I look too much like my mother to be adopted and I act too much like my dad! Maddie, come on, be reasonable!" I lowered my head even further, feeling the tears pricking at my eyes and pushing them back with thoughts of my niece. They wouldn't do me any good. Not now, anyway.

Before I could say any more, the book was gently taken out of my wrought-iron grasp, and I looked up to see Maddie and Lavi looking at me with sympathetic eyes, Lavi more than Maddie because she had to have been going through the exact same thing, "Come on. We need to see Bookman."

I furrowed my eyebrows, something I found myself doing a lot of lately as venom unearned and unbidden entered my voice, "Bookman? You're not going to take us to see Komui? You're not going to take us to Komui and get us kicked out?" Mentally, I gaped down at myself. What the hell was wrong with me? The passage said mood swings…no. I shook the thoughts from my head. I wasn't slowly unraveling and turning into an Akuma, and Maddie wasn't either.

Lavi sent me a cheery smile, but I knew it was fake as it didn't break through the junior bookman façade that he held so dutifully in place, "You're not dangerous right now. Besides, the old panda will know what to do if something should happen. Though, I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding." He nodded to Maddie, who sent a shaky, small smile my way, nodding herself.

"Yeah," she murmured, still shook up about the whole ordeal as she obviously, finally allowed it all to hit her. "I'm sure I just read something wrong."

I took a deep breath, "You and me both, mon amie, you and me both."

Somehow, I wasn't so sure that any of us were right.

Final Words: Yep, Maddie's Akuma idea is really something to work with! Hope you guys like the dreaded plot bunnies! Maddie and I do! We swear!

Glossary:

Et je vous déteste, mon ami - French, means "And I hate you, my friend." Quite literally, too!
Mon amie - "My friend", this is feminine. "Mon ami" is masculine, hence Rain using that with Kanda, and "amie" with Maddie. Proper grammar and all! They're both pronounced the same.
Merci beaucoup - "Thank you very much"

You all know the drill! R&R! Maddie and I will give you cookies! I'm out of cake, sadly, everyone ate it at Thanksgiving...sorry.

~VivaciousWolf245